This invention relates to a user interface, especially a user interface for a portable telephone.
Many portable telephones are controlled through a series of menus. Each menu consists of a series of menu items which can be selected by a user. The selecting of an item controls the telephone, either to cause it to present another menu (for example if the menus are organised in a hierarchical, branching structure) or to control other features of the telephone (for example to begin a telephone call, store information in a memory or increase the telephone's ringing volume). Typically, three keys are provided to allow the user to operate the menu system. One key causes the next menu item to be displayed, another key causes the preceding menu item to be displayed, and the third key is used to select the currently-displayed item. This is a form of "scroll-and-select" menu system.
There is a need for portable telephones (especially hand-portable telephones) to be smaller, to make them more convenient to carry, and as they become smaller it is necessary to reduce the size of their keypads. However, this has the risk of making the telephones less easy to use; either because the keys are too small or, if fewer keys are used, because a more basic but less user-friendly control system has had to be adopted.